Dialogues and Debates: Where will counselling psychology be in the next 30 years? From a Conference to the Premiership

Abstract

Content and FocusAcknowledging the recent 30th anniversary for counselling psychology, this article considers how the profession could develop in future. In particular it suggests how counselling psychology could influence mental health provision in the new commissioning environment and calls for an active and positive engagement based on our core values. This requires the Division and counselling psychologists themselves to be more assertive and self promoting, building on the successes of the past to help determine and influence the future. Three main strategies are suggested: counselling psychology as the champions of practicebased evidence; promoting phenomenological-based intervention; and identifying counselling psychology as the most suitable provider for co-morbid and secondary care (Step 4) clients.ConclusionThe growth and achievements of the profession over the last three decades underlies the sentiment that counselling psychology has more than come of age. In contrast, however, its presence in the consciousness of commissioners and the general public is unreliable. Developments in mental health strategies such as the Recovery Model and the uncertainty of service provision at post-IAPT or secondary care, create a climate for counselling psychology to offer solutions. Far from being mainly a competing narrative within the rarefied communities of psychology and the wider psychotherapeutic professions, counselling psychology has the muscle to make decisive contributions at a national policy making level. This can only happen if there is a sense of united purpose and concerted effort at the structural and individual level. The suggestions made in this article are only some of many other ways this could occur, but it is important to recognise that asserting the profession’s value is not egotistical and without a programme of self-promotion counselling psychology risks marginalisation.